Lancome Grandiose Mascara

It is very rare that I find a mascara that actually makes a difference to my lashes. My eye lashes are really rubbish and I find a lot of mascaras tend to just make my eyelashes darker and therefore show up more, but there are only a very select few that do make a real difference to them. In the past, the only two that I remeber as standing out to me, are the Chanel volumizing mascara that I reviewed a while ago, and the Benefit 'They're Real', however I do find that slightly uncomfortable to wear.

I have now found one that could beat these two, and it is the newly launched  Lancome Grandiose mascara. As soon as I tried it on, I knew I had to have it! The actual bottle itself is really pretty, and it has a very thick bottom to make room for its interesting shaped wand.

The wand is described as a 'swan neck' shape, and is designed so you can perfectly angle each individual lash.

 It perfectly coats each lash from root to tip, and gives length and volume. It coats each individual lash to create a wide eyed look, without being spidery and gives a fanned out finish.

To apply you start at the root and zig zag to the tip of the lash. The swan neck applicator means you can really get in there to create layer upon layer.

Its such an exciting new launch, and I went out and bought one yesterday and have not regretted it at all.

This mascara retails at £24.00, which I think is a really good price for a high end mascara that delivers so well. This is definitely my new number 1 mascara, and I think it will be hard to beat.

Ren Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial

This is a product I have been patiently waiting for, for a very long time now. The first time I saw it was way back in October last year on 'It's a LDN thing', and I eagerly anticipated its arrival since. If you read Millie's post you will see it has changed a lot since then, thankfully the phallic looking pump has been ditched, and replaced with a much more bathroom appropriate tube.

The flash rinse is applied to cleansed, dry skin, and it feels like a really really fine exfoliate. It comes out in a green sort of paste, which is unlike any other beauty product I have ever seen.

You then wet your fingertips and massage the face again to activate the ingredients, and leave on as a mask for a minute. Once washed off, you can instantly see the results, and my skin felt smooth and it looked much brighter. It is the vitamin C in the product that creates the brightness, and it is an ingredient I am falling in love with as it is in a lot of the skin care I'm using at the moment. It also means it has a fresh and fruity smell to it which is another great aspect to it. It is advised not to use on sensitive skins, and I must admit the sensitivity around my nose didn't enjoy this product as much as the rest of my face. It didn't hurt or sting, it just felt slightly dry after using it.

This product can be used every 3 days as a boosting treatment, and I love how you see the effects instantly. It is also meant to have long term firming effects too. This product launched TODAY on the website, and I would highly recommend the product! At £32 it is a product that will last a while, and is a perfect quick and easy way to brighten your complexion.

Lightning Nails

The last few days in England have been very stormy indeed. It has been the hot topic of the moment as we are not used to these kind of climatic dramas. Storms are the only weather that will make you switch off everything your doing, lay down, and stare absent mindedly out of the window anticipating a rumble of thunder or a flash of lightning... at least I do anyway.

I was babysitting on Friday night so had a lot of extra time to enjoy the storm, and managed to get a few snaps of the lightning. This one is my favourite that I got, I am no photographer but I was pretty impressed with this one!

This reminded me that I have been meaning to do some lightning nails for a while now. I have a list on my phone of nails I want to do, for when I get a sudden inspiration or reminder when I'm out and about. Lightning has certainly been on the list for a while, and this gave me the occasion to do it.

For this nail art, I used Barry M 'Indigo' as my base colour. The first coat was really watery but the second coat gave the perfect deep blue night sky I wanted. I then sponged on the purple colour, -creatively named 'Bright Purple'- into forks of where I wanted the lightning to go. I then sponged white at the cuticle to create the source of lightning, and then used the nip to create the jagged blots of lightning down the nail.

From far away I think these nails look better, when up close they potentially look like nail art gone wrong! I think the thinner the lines, the more effective the look will be. Let me know what you think!

Bleach London Rose Colour

Before I went to Glastonbury, I posted a picture of myself on Instagram with my attempted pink hair. Unfortunately it didn't go as pastel pink as I wanted but that shouldn't be the reason I don't review the product! Although it didn't work how I wanted, I'll explain why I don't think it did and how I will try and make it work in the future, as I am not going to give up on the pink hair quest!

So the product I used was the Bleach London rose hair colour which is a semi permanent dye.

As my hair is naturally blonde, it said I wouldn't need to bleach my hair, but I used the bleach London White toner beforehand to make sure my hair was as blonde as it could be. I have done a full review of the toner before so click the link below to read that.

http://whatalookerbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/bleach-london-white-toner.html

Once the toner was washed out, I applied the colour to my hair in strands. It says to leave the colour on for 10 to 15 minutes. The actual formula is thick and creamy and is easy to apply. Because of it's creaminess, it feels quite moisturising on the hair.

After washing it out, this was the final result.

As you can see by my face I wasn't completely satisfied with my hair.

A favourite blogger of mine called melon lady recently did a video on this very product, and described her hair as more of a hue rather than a pastel, and I think mine came out similar.
(The link to her video is here) I am a bit disappointed it didn't come out as pastel as I wanted as I had dreamt of pink hair for about 3 years now and can only do it at certain times due to work, so I had to go to Glastonbury as a very faint pink tinged blonde, which actually didn't look very pink after this picture.

I think next time I try this product, I will have to leave the toner on for longer to get the really white blonde colour so the pink had a better base to stick too.

I would also leave the pink colour on for longer as my hair is really really thick and probably needs longer for the colour to penetrate my hair.

Have you ever tried going a pastel colour? And if so which brands did you try?

June Birchbox

The World Cup is over!! Even though I'm not a huge football lover, it is a nice way for the world to come together and have mutual interests. Much like this Birchbox, everyone gets a little inspired from it, and it gets us all a little patriotic!

This genius Birchbox put in products from different countries over the world, in a mini cosmetic tournament, and even with these products, I was kind of rooting for the British product to be the best, but just like our team, it was a little disappointing! Lets take a look in the box and see if Birchbox did a Suarez, and bit off more than they could chew, with combining cu;t products from around the world.

Silk + Honey Shea Butter Hair Mask

So to kick off the game we have this product representing England, which is this hair mask by Silk + Honey who I had never heard of before. After a little research I found they are incredibly new brand who only launched February of this year. It's a natural brand, which send out kits of all the ingredients needed for you to make the product when you receive it. The kit for this hair mask retails at £55 which for that price, I think I would want it already made up for me to use with no work required! I have to say that this mask was incredibly disappointing, and I actually used the whole pot in one go because I felt it just wasn't doing anything each time I applied it. Shea Butter to me, is a very creamy and thick moisturising ingredient, so I was expecting a highly nourishing product that would leave my hair feeling soft and hydrated.  I actually had to use my normal conditioner after using this just because I felt it had done nothing to my hair at all.

Its such a shame because I think the idea behind the brand is actually really fun and exciting. Being able to see all the natural ingredients and creating a completely chemical free product in your own home, is a really revolutionary idea, and a good way to educate people on natural skincare. However if the product doesn't perform, then it isn't going to work. I think I would like to try more from the brand to see if I was just unfortunate with this mask. As a small company there are only three other kits available at the moment which make a hand cream, a body moisturiser and a lipgloss.

O.P.I Mini Colour

So after a bad start from England, lets move onto the real winner of this box for me, which of course was a nail varnish. I don't think I will ever be dissapointed by a nail polish, but this one in particular was perfect for me. This O.P.I colour is from the Brazil collection which I have been DESPERATE to get my hands on. I love every single colour in the collection and think it is just perfect for summer.

The cute mini sized colour I recieved was called 'Kiss Me I'm Brazilian' and it is such a pretty pink. It's really bright and fruity and I have had a few compliments on the colour. Much like Brazil, it oozes fun and sun.

 Yves Rocher Lipstick

This a product I was also excited about receiving as I am a big fan of red lipsticks and this was another to add to my collection. I have tried an Yves Rocher product before but I can't remember what it was. This lipstick was actually very sheer as you can see on my swatch below, and didn't give a very bold red card colour which I like in a lipstick. I think if you want a sheer coverage then a gloss is better.

I think this would be a good product for someone who is experimenting with red lipstick, as it is quite build-able and the lasting power is only a couple of hours max. If like me however you like a bold red lip this may not be the lipstick for you.

 Embryolisse moisturiser

The next product is also a french product and apparently is a cult moisturiser in France. Its all natural again which is a big plus, and can be layered up to use as a mask. Unfortunately again for the French, I just wasn't keen on this product either. It is incredibly thick and actually made me sweat when it was on. It is very nourishing and perhaps used as a 10 minute mask it would benefit me more, or maybe as a winter moisturiser. Sorry France I would have preferred quality to quantity.

Naobay Body Radiance Lotion

Finally we have the Spanish body lotion. This was light weight and very citrusy smelling. It is meant to add radiance to the skin with its shea butter, olive and avocado oils, all of which are organic ingrediants. This was a nice light lotion and the smell died down after a while so you could wear your normal perfume. This was a nice product but I probably wouldn't buy it.

Overall, I was hopeful for this box like I was for England in the world cup, however the initial excitement dwindled as I realised most of these products were not for me. Maybe if Birchbox has popped in a German product, we would have been onto a winner!

Palm Tree Sunset Nails

Hello everyone! today I am posting about some nail art that I am actually pretty proud of. It's been a while since I've looked at some nail art I've done and thought 'that looks pretty good'. Maybe I've been going for more ambitious designs such as my Glasto tie dye nails. 

Anyway! these are actually pretty simple to do, all you need are the items below plus a white base colour and a sponge.

You will probably be surprised to hear that this is actually the first bottle of acetone I have ever bought, which is pretty shocking as a nail art lover. I think as it is very strong I've always been a little bit scared of using it as it is designed to completely remove false and gel nails, but it is fantastic to clean up around the edges of nails which is essential after any gradient manicure (If you look back at any gradient I've blogged about before my clean up is always very minimal).

The two colours I chose for my gradient were 'Strawberry' and 'Peach Melba' by Barry M. They are very thin pastel colours and actually quite difficult to gradient with. I ended up just painting the two colours on the nail and then dabbing  in between to merge them which is a bit of a cheat way to gradient, and is probably why I didn't get a perfect fade from one colour to the other. The formula of the polishes were just too thin though. Using a thicker polish is easier as the sponge picks it up better.

As my gradient wasn't as flawless as I wanted, I decided to add some silhouette palm trees to give it a sunset summer vibe. I just used the striper brush side to my Model's own nail art pen, and added some thinner swipes along the leaves to give it a more realistic plant effect. I'm not going away on holiday this year so these nails will have to be my retreat! Hope you like them!

Mavala Oasis Collection

All the lovely new summer collections are coming out which is very exciting! This one is from Mavala which you may know is one of my top nail brands!

The collection as a whole, is quite cool in terms of colours. We will start with my favourite collection from the collection! So here is...

Sunset Orange

This is such a nice colour on everyone who wears it. It makes your hands look really tanned and it is a real eye catcher. A good coral colour is a must have in everyones nail collection.

Wind Breeze

Wind breeze is a very flat nude colour. This didn't look quite right on my skin tone, but my friend with darker skin tried it and it looked lovely on her. It's a really nice nude colour.

Sand Rose




In the bottle this didn't really stand out to me but when it was on, this burnt, metallic rose gold is really pretty. Another colour that would look great on every skin tone.

Orchid Mauve

This is another colour that I thought looked underwhelming in the bottle. I would now go as far to say it is my second favourite in the collection. It has a slight twist on a pastel purple that is popular this time of year, as it has a slight dusty tone to it. Very pretty.

Treasure

Treasure is the bling of the collection. On its own I thought it is a bit much on the hands, but on the toes, or used for nail art I think this is a really exciting colour. It is a smooth metallic which means easy removal which is a bonus!

Sky Blue

This was one of the colours that really stood out to me in the collection. A bright blue is another must have in any collection. It isn't a pastel blue, but more of a bright baby blue. It is a great eye catcher and one of my favourite blues.

What do you think of this collection? let me know in the comments :)

Tie Dye Nails

Hi everyone, as you may or may or not have known, I was at Glastonbury festival over the weekend hence my absence from the old blog. Now I am back, my nails are a state, my hair has been dried and bleached from the sun, and I have mud engrained in my pores. I had an amazing time though and would go back in a second! Before I went, I wanted to do some hippy inspired tie dye nails, as I have seen a few popping up on Pinterest and Instagram pages.

First, I painted my nails white to let the neon colours I wanted to use, really pop. I then went and got my Models Own neon collection, which you can read about in more detail here. Starting from the centre, I dotted each colour into a swirl, not being to neat to give the Tie Dye effect. I then went back and did another layer of each colour. It took quite a long time and I am not 100% happy with the way it came out so think I will try another technique next time.

As these were especially for Glastonbury, I decided to add some lettering onto the nails, which I posted up on my Instagram. I'm not going to post it so you HAVE to go to my instagram to see it. Whilst your there you may as well give it a follow :)

http://instagram.com/whatalooker